Liberal Klein Disses Grandmothers

Ezra Klein thinks grandmothers have a lame sense of humor (re: D = drive, R= reverse joke of Obama's).

Lincoln's Disaster Program (Cont)

Chris Clayton reports Vilsack says they're working on Lincoln's disaster program, but want it to reinforce crop insurance:..." if we were to do it, how would you do it in a way that would reinforce crop insurance and the SURE program?"

I think the answer is, you don't.  It's like saying, if we're going to somehow find the money so our teenager can replace his old car with a new Porsche, how do we do it in a way that would reinforce his good driving habits?

The Germans, Bless Them

Watched The Last Station over the weekend--starring Mirren and Plummer.  It's apparently reasonably accurate depiction of Tolstoy's last days and the conflict with his wife, Sophia.  It's good, not great, if you like such pictures, as we do.

The director's commentary was interesting.  Most of the movie was filmed in various German places, because they had both the financial incentives and the infrastructure, in contrast with Russia which was disorganized and a crap shoot.  He commented he wanted the villa where the Tolstoys lived to be a bit dirty, because it was the center of a lot of farming activity (a commune) and lots of people going in and out.  But despite his best efforts, the German crew would keep cleaning up the dirt. 

Given my mother's folks came from Germany, I've experienced that mania, although I've fortunately escaped it myself.

Is $1.1 Million Small?

I don't know what regulations the bankers feel handcuffed by, but these apple growers in Washington feel $1.1 million is too small. That seems to be the cap on the FSA loan program (presumably the one for beginning farmers, though that's not clear).

I saw elsewhere that farmland prices in the Midwest were pushing towards $7K per acre.  That would mean about a quarter section, which probably is a smallish orchard.  Of course, if it's bare ground, you've got to allow for planting trees and bringing them to production, and hopefully you aren't growing Red Delicious but some up and coming variety.  (I've found Jazz to be good; I usually eat Fujis but in late summer the Fujis we get have lost something (imported maybe from New Zealand or somewhere).) 

I suspect I'll confirm the thoughts of the food movement but I suspect the FSA beginning farmer program was mostly geared to growers of field crops or dairy.  It's been around a while so it would be hard to prove. Anyhow raising the cap is hard.  Even if you get past the opponents of any such farm program, you face the reality the bigger the loan you can make, the fewer the loans.  So is it better to lend money to a bunch of people who want to flee their city job and set up a small farm in the country, supporting themselves by free-lancing or other such work or to one hard-working immigrant farmer who plans to farm full-time?

The Litigious American

This Business Week article says claims from all 50 states confront Kenneth Feinberg, the BP claim administrator. Tocqueville was right.

The Foodies Case Against Dairy

Some foodies have a problem with the dairy industry, but at least they don't lie about aborted dairy calves.

I do question this statement: "The average milking cow is about four when she’s considered “spent” in industry terms."  Amazingly enough a quick Google doesn't reveal an authoritative answer. Nor do I trust wikipedia on this.  I think this piece accurately reflects the dairyperson's thoughts, particularly the smaller one who is growing her own replacements.  In other words, the answer to the question "when does the dairy cow go to slaughter" is: "it all depends".

Props to GW Again

Seems every 6 months or so something comes up where I have to recognize our former President and his accomplishments.  This time it's his approach to Islam after 9/11.  See this Politico piece by Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman on the way the GOP is abandoning his stand and, as titled, GOP takes harsher stand on Islam.

Resolving the Mosque Issue

Seems to me at bottom the controversy over the community center/mosque planned for lower Manhattan is a NIMBY (not in my backyard) issue.  Everyone agrees the group has the legal right to build 2 blocks from the World Trade Center site; it's just some like the ADL and some conservatives don't think it's a good place. In this light there are a couple ways to resolve it, methods which apply whenever NIMBYism raises its head. Of course, since I'm a liberal, they involve using governmental authority:

• use zoning laws to specify that no religious building shall be built within x miles of the WTC site, grandfathering in the existing churches. (It wouldn't be legal to specify no mosques.)
• use eminent doman to buy all the property within x miles of the WTC site, so the land become government owned, just like the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville.  Of course, the cost would be high.  If the public is willing to pay the price, and not spend the money on other uses, then they can have a buffer zone.

[Updated:  You could also do a "legislative taking", which is what Congress did for some Manassas battleground land back in the day.

Finally, I like Dan Drezner's comments.]

Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Via Tyler Cowen, German plutocrats look unkindly on poor old Bill Gates and his crusade to have billionaires give away half their income.

From the interview:

In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state. In the end the billionaires are indulging in hobbies that might be in the common good, but are very personal.
SPIEGEL: Do the donations also have to do with the fact that the idea of state and society is such different one in the United States?

Krämer: Yes, one cannot forget that the US has a desolate social system and that alone is reason enough that donations are already a part of everyday life there. But it would have been a greater deed on the part of Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffet if they had given the money to small communities in the US so that they can fulfil public duties.

Animal Welfare

The Times had an article (8/12) on animal welfare, focused on the agreement in Ohio between the Humane Society and the farmers.

Robin Hanson has a post  which includes a long quote on a survey of philosophers.  This sentence is striking:

Fully 81% of female philosophers born in 1960 or later said it was morally bad to regularly eat the meat of mammals.

 As John Phipps has said, I think the trend is slowly to define eating mammals as bad, just as it's now been defined that eating white bread is bad and whole wheat is good.